55 Mannington Meadows swans killed off by state to thin flock, test for avian flu

Staff photo by Britney LillyaTwo mute swans are seen in this file photo on the waters of Mannington Meadows in Mannington Township. The state said sharpshooters killed off 55 of the big birds to thin the flock and test them for the avian flu.MANNINGTON TWP. — Apparently beauty isn’t everything in the bird world either, as the state Division of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed reports of a mass eradication of the majestic mute swan here.

Following plenty of speculation among concerned residents, division Assistant Director Larry Herrighty said this week that approximately 55 swans were shot and killed in recent months for the dual purpose of population thinning and species sampling for avian flu.

“There are ecological health issues, but the main purpose of this is human safety,” Herrighty said during a telephone conversation. “It is a very important species for us to monitor.”

He said that no blood samples drawn had tested positive for avian flu (H5N1). The bodies, which were collected around the Mannington Meadows, were then incinerated.

No human cases of avian flu have ever been reported in the United States, World Health Organization statistics show. But the pandemic has killed 262 of the 442 people reported to have the flu in the past six years, all occurring in Asia and Africa.

An invasive bird native to Europe and Asia, the stately white swans are actually considered something of a bully to biologists, moving in on domestic waterfowl’s breeding grounds and tearing up vegetation that other creatures depend upon.

Though the swans, first introduced in America in the 1800s as a decorative bird for zoos, parks and private estates, have been adopted as a mainstay in Salem County, and in turn have made the vast system of waterways here one of its primary homes in New Jersey.

Artists have painted them splashing about in countless sunset landscapes, while photographers revel in capturing their pure white plumage and distinguished orange and black beaks.

Township Mayor Ernest Tark Jr. said Friday it was alarming that the swans were killed in residents’ own backyards without any prior notification. Though the depredation plan required a federal permit.

“They just came in and did it,” Tark said. “A lot of people come down to see the swans, and they are in a lot of the county’s tourism materials. Now just like that, they are gone.”

Herrighty pointed out that the swans will move up and down the coast in search of warmer weather, a migration pattern that could lead to less sightings as winter approaches.

The state mute swan population last year was right around 1,250, according to the Atlantic Flyway Mid-Summer survey, depicting an exponential increase since 1986 when that number was around 530.

However across the Atlantic Flyway that stretches from Ontario to Florida, the swan’s numbers have seen a large decline since 2002, dropping from 14,344 to 10,541 in 2008. Animal rights groups like Friends of Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have taken notice, documenting great opposition to swan kills in numerous states.

Apparently some residents here share those sentiments, reporting that hunters were driving around with pickup trucks brimming with bird corpses.

“I was first of all quite upset, but then you think to yourself there must be a reason to thin the numbers,” said former Mannington mayor and retired science teacher Donald Asay.

A male can weigh up to 25 pounds and eat six to eight pounds of submerged aquatic vegetation a day, an inconvenience for other waterfowl and invertebrates that subsist on the same plants.

Before the killings, swans could often be viewed in the meadow with their heads under water in search of submerged vegetation to eat.

Yet survival of the fittest need not apply. Despite the multi-generational colonies that are thriving here and their presence in the country for close to two centuries, the mute swan shouldn’t expect to be naturalized any time soon.

“It shows we get this idea that even though they’ve been here forever, they are still not native,” Asay said.